River Road
In 1999 the City of Toledo received orders from the Ohio EPA to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows in the River Road area around Brookford Drive, Sherwood Drive and Midland Parkway. A Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) is when the sanitary sewers become overloaded and overflow the confines of the pipes and manholes, in this case to the Maumee River and Delaware Creek.
In 2001 The City completed a Sanitary Sewer Evaluation Survey (SSES) to determine the causes and potential solutions to the sanitary sewer overflows in the area. The study recommended projects to limit inflow and infiltration of rain water into the sanitary sewers via leaky pipes and illegal storm water connections. In response to this the City notified owners of storm water connections to remove them from the sanitary system. The City also performed extensive sewer lining and implemented projects to remove stormwater flow from the sanitary sewers.
The report also recommended increasing the size of some of the pipes in the area and construction of storage facilities in the area to hold combined sewage until the main pipes to the waste water treatment plant could handle the additional flow, rather than discharging the wastewater directly to rivers and streams.
A 3 million gallon storage basin and two pump stations were constructed. The basin is located underground at River Road Park with a buried pump station next to it. The second pump station is on Brookford Drive on the west side of the Anthony Wayne Trail. As part of this project relief sewers were also built on Beverly Drive and along River Road from Brookford Drive to Hemlock. These improvements eliminated a Sanitary Sewer Overflow located at River Road and Midland.
Construction in River Road Park and on River Road began in 2005. It includes the Construction of an equalization basin and the installation of relief sewers.
A Second SSO was discharging flow into Delaware Creek near Yaryan. A project was initiated in 2009 to stop the flow from entering the creek. The project was completed in August 2010 with the installation of a pump station that, along with other system modification, stops the flow of combined sewage into the creek but also significantly reduces the possibility of basement flooding in the area of the old overflow.
A third sanitary sewer overflow that was discovered in 2008 is at the intersection of South Detroit Ave and Delaware Creek (near the rail road underpass near the old Bowsher Stadium) and will be eliminated. The project will begin with the construction of an 8 million gallon buried storage basin behind the Schneider Rd soccer fields. Construction started in August 2010. It is estimated to take between 18-24 months to construct. Once completed, these improvements will result in millions of gallons of combined sewage being sent to the Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment rather than being discharged directly into the local rivers and streams during extreme wet weather events.
